TEL AVIV, July 29, 2005 (WAFA)- After seven-year legal struggle, Land and Planning Appeals Committee Granted permit to Palestinian Bedouin family to build home on their privately-owned land in the Galilee in Israel.

In a press release, Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, the Northern District Appellate Committee (NDAC) decided to accept its appeal on behalf of a Palestinian Israeli family and to grant a permit to them to build a family home on their privately-owned land in the Jewish community town of Kamoun, in the north of Israel.

It said the NDAC acceptance of the appeal is subject to the fulfillment of a number of conditions, toward which the Sawaed family is currently working. Adalah Attorney Suhad Bishara is representing the Sawaed family.

Although the Sawaeds' unrecognized house is surrounded by villas inhabited by Jewish families, the local committee of Kamoun, the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) and the Misgav Local Planning and Building Council (MLPBC) objected to granting a permit to them to build a permanent home, insisting that they should instead establish their home in the nearby Arab village of Kamaneh, which received state recognition in 1995.

In its decision accepting Adalah's appeal, the NDAC criticized the MLPBC's management of the Sawaeds' application for the building permit, and stated that, "generally, we think that local committees should make the effort to serve a citizen in a way that would make it possible for him to build, and would not do all it can to prevent him from being able to do that."

A similar appeal submitted by Adel Sawaed's brother, Hatim Sawaed, who was represented by Attorney Hassan Sawaed, was joined to this appeal.

The NDAC's decision applies to both appeals.

A.D. (19:23 P) (16:23 GMT)